Have you wondered what it’s like to be all in and working towards a deadline with your creative work?
I’m interrupting my series of Getting Started With a Creative Routine to interview Randi Janelle.
I think its better to talk to someone who is in the middle of it, than for me to yak on about what it takes to set boundaries and commit your time.
Randi’s goal is to finish her novel and release it on Halloween, 2015. That’s less than 5 months away.
For anyone who has spent years working on a novel, you know how scary a deadline for it being DONE can be.
For many creatives, getting started and building momentum can be easy, but getting to the finish successfully can be very hard…and scary.
I want to start off by saying thank you to Randi, because she took the time to answer my questions during her very committed time!
To Randi: You’re in the middle of a manic write to a deadline now–what has been the hardest change in your routine?
How many hours a day are you writing?
What have you done that has helped you?
What helps you stay on track and motivated?
How do you stay out of becoming overwhelmed and stressing over the looming deadline?
It’s certainly happened. I’ve had days where I wake up and I prepare these monolgues…I’m sorry, but I just can’t make dinner at all this week, please forgive me, I can’t do chores neither…cue desperate hair-pulling whines. But then I get to work and the joy of the creative process relaxes me. By the simple act of it raising my energy, all the stress and worries about what others expect of me fall away. And then the writing is down and I get ever closer to finishing.
How are those around you–family, roomies, friends–reacting to your schedule changes?
and a yoga instructor at Weaverville Yoga. Check out her website and sign up to get in on all the exciting (and non-traditional) goodies she has for her followers as we all wait in anticipatory glee for the release of her first book, The Story on October 31, 2015.How To Get Started With A Creative Routine – Step 3
Welcome back to my series on how to get started with a creative routine.
In step 1, I mentioned the illusion of time.
I’m going to expand on that because it is SO very important when you’re getting started.
Think back on a time when you met someone new and had a crush, or started dating.
If you were really interested, it began taking up a lot of your time and thought, right?
Because you met them, did it give you more time? No, but somehow you made time for them, even if you were already super busy.
You probably had to give up something else in your life in order to make room for them.
Less time with your besties, or less time watching TV, or less time getting your work done.
We always make time for what we love, want and are excited about!
At some point, when you make the decision to get serious about your art, you will need to place your creative time in a high priority slot.
It will need to go from playing with the paints when the mood strikes you, to spending time each day painting.
There is something in your life that you’ll need to give less attention to in order to give more attention to your creativity.
What will it be?
This is your first phase of discipline and responsibility to your work. When you commit to this, things have to change.
It’s like starting a new job. You have to be there at 8 a.m. You can’t stay up until 3 a.m. anymore. You have to rearrange your schedule.
Just as you need to put in the effort to keep a relationship going, you will need to put in the effort to stay focused on your creative work.
Because it is ‘creative’ work and it seems to bubble up whenever it wants to, doesn’t mean that you only wait to be inspired to work.
This is why training your brain to be productive at the very beginning is so important. When you sit at your desk to write, or get out your paints or sit in your favorite chair with special music on to write a poem, you set the intention to be productive – even if you don’t feel inspired beforehand. You’re telling your creative muse that you’re ready.
One of the difficult things you might experience once you begin a routine is in setting boundaries with those you live with and are close to.
Unless you go somewhere to work, you’re probably going to be working from home.
Those you live with are going to need to know that your time “working” is just the same as if you were in an office or workplace somewhere else. It can be hard for them to take your time seriously, when you’re sitting on the couch, or in your bedroom or at the kitchen table. Interruptions and expectations for your time might be frequent because others don’t realize that this is serious work for you – especially if you work in the evenings, or on the weekends.
This means you’ll need to clearly communicate to others that when you are working, you need that time to be respected and not interrupted unless… (and you need to set the parameter for what interruptions are OK).
As with any commitment to a new dream, if others don’t know about it or understand it, they won’t see it as having the importance that you know it has.
You might need help from a spouse or kids in order to carve out some extra time in your day.
I’ve experienced and seen this part of setting up a routine hi-jack a commitment to serious creative work.
Why?
Because we’re afraid to tell those we love that we’ve decided to go for it. We don’t want to rock the boat or seem as if we’re being rude when we can’t go out with friends or we ask a spouse to cook dinner or we tell our kids to leave us alone. Sadly, it can turn into battles we’d rather not deal with, so we put it off.
Don’t wait until you have time to get serious, because trust me, it will never show up.
You have to make the time, and clearly communicate to those around you what you are doing, what you need and to honor the time you will be spending.
If YOU aren’t serious and respecting the time, no one else will either.
This doesn’t mean you become a hermit!
As a creative, you need time to relax, to have fun, to be inspired and to refill your creative juices.
- What needs to change in your schedule?
- What do you need to let those around you know?
- What boundaries do you need to set in order to not be interrupted when you are working?
- What do you need to let go of in order to create a ‘space’ energetically, time-wise and physically, so you can get serious about your work?
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8 Ways to Fail Effectively and Never Feel Like a Loser Again
8 Ways to Fail Effectively and Never Feel Like a Loser Again
Are you feeling a sense of failure because your book isn’t finished, or your art work is still just sitting in your studio?
Failure is a Creative’s worst nightmare.
We live with an abundance of ideas, visions and the urge to try new things. It is what allows us to create new worlds in our stories, new images in our art and new ways of expressing what is in our souls.
But what if our idea, or new vision flops big time?
What if we can’t seem to get anywhere with what we originally thought was a great novel idea?
Should we just call it a failure and quit?
Failure is actually our best friend. It is an important part of any endeavor.
If you’re not failing, you’re not trying.
Failure can affect your state of mind or you can chose to take advantage of it.
The most successful people take advantage of it. That is why they are successful!
Use failure to your benefit.
You don’t need to avoid failure. It is a wonderful way to learn and stretch yourself.
All creative acts require failure in the development process. Failing regularly gives you the best chance of long-term success.
Here are 8 Ways to Fail Effectively and Never Feel Like a Loser Again:
- Fail quickly. If an idea isn’t going to work out, realize it sooner rather than later. Avoid spending too much time on a faulty premise. It doesn’t make sense to invest your mental thought and energy for months only to realize that an idea won’t work.
- At the same time, don’t give up too quickly. Give an idea a fair chance to be successful. Some things take more time than others do.
- A story idea might not be going well, but it might not be the idea. The structure, perspective or angle might be the problem. Switch it up instead of feeling like it’s a failed idea.
- Switch medias for a bit to free your mind and allow your creativity to resolve whatever mistake you made.
- Make sure you’re failing for the right reason. Did you put in the necessary time and resources? If something has gone wrong, determine carefully if it was the idea or the execution.
- Have you considered every possible need of your project?
- Is there something you need to learn how to do for a particular project?
- Can your idea work if you change your approach?
When I was in art class in high school, several of my best pieces were created because I corrected something that wasn’t going as I wanted. What I saw in my mind’s eye wasn’t how it was turning out, but I let what was being created continue.
- Fail differently each time. Many people keep making the same mistakes over…and over. Failing loses all of its value if you fail to learn from it. Each time you fail in a new way, you have the opportunity to improve your work.
- Keep a Failure Journal. While I don’t believe in keeping my attention on what went wrong or feeling bad after a failure, when we keep notes on what came out of what we tired, we can learn from it. How can you apply that information in the future? Sometimes a failure shows us something new about ourselves that we had not noticed before. Was the failure about technique? Or your lack of confidence? Sometimes a failure can be the best fodder for our art! Did the new medium or method go awry? Did something else come out of it?
Can you use the new information for a future piece of work? Did the mistake give you a new idea for a different style to try out?
- Keep an accurate perspective. What is failure? It is simply an undesired result. That is all. It’s not about your intelligence, worth, or future. There is absolutely NO reason to take it personally. It was an idea that didn’t work out as you thought it would. Stay detached from your results and keep moving forward.
- The great coach, John Wooden, stated that he hoped no one would be able to tell if his team had won or lost based on the team’s demeanor after a game. That’s detachment.
- Be resilient. Your feelings of self-worth aren’t dependent on your results. You can feel good about yourself even when you don’t achieve your desired outcome. Be proud that you were brave enough to fail and continue.
- If you find yourself constantly beating yourself up over mistakes, then work on “acting successful.” As you work, imagine friends and fans telling you how much it moves them. Imagine the people who will want to buy it. Pretend and the feelings will follow. Those feelings will then help you successfully accomplish your goals.
- Keep failure and fault separate. We learned in childhood that admitting to mistakes resulted in taking the blame. Whether you’re working on your own project or one with others, keep blame out of it. A group mistake can be a gold mine opportunity for a brainstorming session that leads to something even better than the original idea!
- Failure should bring you closer to an optimal solution. The more challenging the goal, the more times you can expect to fail before achieving success. Write that down. Post it where you work. Make yourself feel PROUD for taking on a big project! Know up front that the bigger the project, the more possible failures!
- Effective failing creates new opportunities. Many of the most important inventions resulted from mistakes. For example, the glue used in post-it notes resulted from an attempt to create a super-strong adhesive.
Avoid feeling down about failing. View each failure as a step in the right direction. There is much to take advantage of through failure. Embrace failure. Just be certain to fail effectively. You will never lose if you fail effectively!
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How Cardology Changed My Life
Within our playing cards is a system to allow us a better understanding of who we are authentically.
I truly believe that when we are in need and we ask for help, we always get an answer.
We’re suddenly drawn to something and it leads us down a path that happens to hold what we need.
Let’s face it – I was a weird kid. I was very shy and always felt that I was in the wrong place – that I didn’t belong.
Add to that was the fact that I grew up on the Navajo reservation and was the only blonde, white girl in my class at school.
I bugged my parents by telling them my dreams each morning and I would gather up all of my Dad’s theology/Bible study books and study. Picture a 6 year old sitting out under a tree with piles of thick bible books all around her.
I had this intense desire to gather information about deep stuff. I also suffered from intense anxiety and depression as a small child. I still have a suicide note from when I was seven.
I’m not telling you this so you’ll feel sorry for me. It is merely to set the scene for what was a very long, lonely journey at trying to figure out who I was and why I felt as I did.
There was a point in my life where I knew I needed to start a spiritual journey that was mine-not what my parents thought best, not what I was raised to do, not what society saw as best, but my own personal journey. Because of my depression, I was searching for anything to help me out of the very dark pit I lived in.
I won’t go into the long story of that journey, but one thing led to another and I began studying my dreams, then creative journaling, the Runes, then the Tarot.
I discovered that metaphysics was my passion. I devoured all the various topics and was the constant seeker.
Studying Astrology and Numerology let me get a glimpse into my soul stats and it helped a lot.
But I noticed that I was very drawn to the deck of regular playing cards. I wasn’t sure why I found them so intriguing (I’m talking about beyond playing fun card games). I actually saw each one as a person with certain traits.
Fast forward many years and I had an online friend who ‘read’ playing cards. It was my first introduction to the art of reading them in the same way someone would read the tarot.
I began to study them by corresponding them to the tarot.
I found my first book about how we each have a birth card and something opened up for me. My study of Astrology and Numerology came together in the system of the cards.
Suddenly, so much made sense. When I looked at my Birth card, the 6♣, and added that to my Life path number 11….I understood why I thought I was so weird!
I won’t bore you with the deets of the core of me, but it all made sense. I could own who I was and see that the very deep, hidden desire I’d had since childhood about being a spiritual teacher was indeed who I am.
Another push of the fast forward button and at another very dark time in my life, I sequestered myself and decided to draw a single card each day and see what message it had for me. This began my work with using the cards to tap into what was really going on at a deeper, spiritual level. I created my own system and exercises to understand what I needed to let go of, heal and change in order to get through the dark space I was in and to create the life I really wanted.
My study of the cards went deeper and I made discoveries about myself that opened new paths, brought new friends into my life, information and opportunities that helped me out of that dark space.
This was prior to learning that we each have a spread of cards that changes on each birthday and is part of a very in-depth ancient system that acts as a guide, a roadmap, a pattern of energies that helps us navigate each year and make the best of it.
I began a new study – I called it Soulmancing, then later discovered others who were Readers and Teachers and that there was even an Association for it and it is being called Cardology . In the system we have a Life Path spread, a Yearly Forecast and even daily cards to navigate, plan and reach our goals. It helped me to understand why certain things were happening, to no longer feel like a victim and to benefit from what was going on.
It changed my life.
It helped me to understand why certain relationships in my life were as they were, why I felt certain challenges and how I could make what seemed like a disaster into something helpful and rewarding.
It reduced my anxiety, gave me skills to combat confusing situations and allowed me to heal things I had been struggling with my whole life.
I no longer suffer from depression or anxiety and I’ve found my path, my purpose and I am genuinely happy!
Not a day goes by that I don’t refer to the cards in some way- by seeing what someone’s birth card is so I get a better understanding of them, to planning my next steps, or even as an inspirational prompt for my creative journaling.
They might seem so simple and insignificant since we all have used them at some point for games, but their history is fascinating and the layers and depth of wisdom within this system is truly amazing!
Within our playing cards is a system to allow us a better understanding of who we are authentically.
This is the key to changing your life and feeling that you’re on the right path and that it has meaning and purpose.
Change always begins from the inside. Living a life with meaning and fulfillment starts when you live as YOU – authentically.
I’m still weird. I love the woo-woo stuff. But now I know that I DO belong and my weirdness is not a curse; I know why I went through the dark times. It has led me here to work I love, to living in a place I love and to knowing how to see life with new eyes.
Do You Want To Feel Empowered?
Do you want to feel empowered?
I spent most of my life feeling disempowered. When I did my core values exercise I discovered that empowerment was on my list.
Weird, I thought.
But then it made sense. Those issues that we struggle with become what matters to us the most.
You grow up in poverty; you work hard to make money.
You grow up being bullied; you work hard to empower yourself.
And, as a mentor/teacher, we tend to want to help others overcome and conquer what we had to overcome and conquer.
This is why learning about the cards and discovering who I really was meant so much to me.
The tool of Soulmancing revealed what I call my ‘soul stats’ and when I started living who I was authentically, the things, people and situations that were not me left my life and the things, people and situations that were me came into my life.
You naturally become empowered when you are living who you really are.
That doesn’t mean we don’t still have moments of feeling scared, or jealous, or sad or angry. It means that when we do experience those low emotions, we know what to do with them. We know what they’re showing us and we can then use them to point out what we need to do next.
That alone is worth it.
But I made another awesome discovery when I started living via my true self-
Living the real you means you’re emitting a very strong signal to the Universe of your desires – naturally.
The Universe doesn’t need repeated words, begging or pleading from us to bring us what we want. That goes nowhere. Our vibrations are what sends out the signal.
And our vibrations are what we are feeling & being in each moment.
When we’re disempowered, confused and unsure, we tend to absorb everything around us. It’s natural to want to fit in and belong, so we attach ourselves to people and beliefs that make us feel we’re somebody because we’re just like everybody. But that way of living disempowers you. It disempowers you because you aren’t emitting a strong signal of you—instead you’re absorbing all the stuff of others.
Picture a wet blanket being thrown over you and that is how you walk through your life. All of the stuff around you ends up sticking to that wet blanket and soon people think that is you.
You start thinking that is you and when stuff comes into your life that you don’t really want or like, you wonder, why is this happening?
If you’re absorbing the reality of someone else who has a constant fear of being attacked, or of losing all they own in a financial crisis or never finding a life partner or romance because all men are bad or…or…or…
What will your life start looking like?
That is a disempowered life.
If, instead, you know who you are and what you want and you start emitting those signals loud and clear (because that is what you’ll do naturally), what will your life look like?
Empowered.
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